Kevin Bostic
Best Buy and Samsung have confirmed that they are teaming up to bring Samsung mini-stores to more than 1,400 Best Buy locations, much in the same way that those locations now feature miniature Apple Stores inside.
Installation showing a sample Samsung Experience Shop. Courtesy of Samsung.
Samsung confirmed today in a press release that the two companies would be partnering to bring Samsung Experience Shops to Best Buy locations across the United States. The partnership will begin with 500 mini-stores opening on April 8, with Samsung stores in 900 Best Buy and Best Buy Mobile stores by early May. The rest of Best Buy's locations will get Samsung installations by early summer.
Rumors of a partnership between the two companies emerged in late March, and Thursday's news provides further details on the forthcoming mini-stores.
Samsung's mobile devices will be the main focus of the mini-stores, but they will also serve as a portal to Samsung's wider product line. Samsung's full range of smartphones, tablets, laptops, connected cameras, and accessories will all be on display.
Samsung's Experience Shops will take up about 460 square feet of space near the front of Best Buy's largest stores. Samsung will staff the stores with dedicated Samsung Experience Consultants, workers specially trained in assisting with product demonstrations, basic product services.
The mini-store move will help Samsung compete against the only other company to receive such prime placement in Best Buy: Apple. Samsung cannot in rapid fashion replicate Apple's sizable retail presence throughout the United States, but a notable presence in the U.S.' largest electronics retailer —about 70 percent of the U.S. population lives within 10 miles of a Best Buy — could go a long way toward increasing Samsung's "mindshare" in Apple's home country.
While Samsung is the overall leader in smartphones sold worldwide — with about 40 percent of the market — Apple leads solidly in the United States market, with 38 percent share versus 21 percent for Samsung.
Looking to reverse that fact, Samsung has made it a point this year to heighten the competition for the American market. To that end, the South Korean conglomerate launched its new flagship smartphone in the United States for the first time and is said to be preparing a massive marketing campaign aimed at making the Galaxy S4 the top handset in the U.S.
William Gallagher
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Malcolm Owen
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Andrew O'Hara
16 Comments
Imagine that...Samsung doing the same thing as Apple.
I wonder if the "Samsung Experience Consultants" will mock the customers at the Apple section. My God that is a stupid name.
It's utterly fascinating comparing the rise of Apple to that of Samsung. One one hand, you have a company that has attained it's success solely through changing the game at every turn, pushing the envelope, rethinking absolutely everything, including long held conventions, is fanatical about design, creates it's own software and platforms from the ground up, and has pretty much defined and laid the foundation for the modern phone, tablet, ultrabook, all-in-one, and mobile appstores, all the while being mocked and doubted every step of the way.
On the other, you have a company who has attained it's recent success solely though cynical and lavish duplication of every single aspect that they saw generated success from the above company, from product design, to software, packaging, marketing, iconography, features, etc- all while contributing absolutely nothing truly unique, or implementing anything that has moved things forward in any real way. Not in software (where they make the stock OS worse, not better), not in design, not in ideas or concepts. Yet, this South Korean company is cheered on by the West, held on a pedestal, and now you have stores like BestBuy who for some reason believe this company has earned the right to have ministores within their own stores, which seem bigger than Apple's, while having nothing or proprietary in their products vs other Android manufacturers, besides their ridiculous marketing budgets. Just a lesson in how underhanded tactics, lots of money, and the willingness to shamelessly copy whats successful can bring you just as much success as the hard work of innovation and going against all conventional thoughts and notions to truly create something new. Can't wait to talk to one of these 'Samsung experience consultants', who can maybe explain to me what makes their products special besides the tacked on and sloppy "S" features which magically all seem to materialize a month after Apple introduces the feature.
I wonder if the "Samsung Experience Consultants" will mock the customers at the Apple section. My God that is a stupid name.
No worse than Apple Geniuses and the Genius Bar.
Smug bastards ;)
[quote name="Mazda 3s" url="/t/156815/best-buy-samsung-confirm-1-400-mini-stores-coming-by-summer#post_2305240"]No worse than Apple Geniuses and the Genius Bar. Smug bastards ;) [/quote] Difference is Geniuses offer that connotation of being an expert so they should be able to help me. Consultants will just rob me of money while not doing anything to help and prolonging my issues. At least that's been my experience with "consultants". :)